Friday's Headlines: Quiet Monday
Updated from 9:22 a.m. EDT
(At 3:55 p.m. EDT)
Quiet Monday?
Originally, the results of the
government's stress tests
were scheduled to be released on Monday, but now that they've been delayed until Thursday afternoon, the week might be off to a relatively quiet start.
There will still be a handful of earnings reports and economic data to sort through.
Sprint Nextel
(S) - Get Report
,
Entergy
(ETR) - Get Report
and
Tyson Foods
(TSN) - Get Report
are among the few companies set to report quarterly results ahead of Monday's opening bell.
Several more companies will report after the end of trading Monday, including
NetSuite
(N)
,
McKesson
(MCK) - Get Report
and
HealthSouth
(HLS)
.
However, none of these stock names have the same cachet as an
Apple
(AAPL) - Get Report
or
(GOOG) - Get Report
or
AT&T
(T) - Get Report
or
Wal-Mart
(WMT) - Get Report
.
Meanwhile, traders will only have to contend with two economic releases during Monday's session, both due at 10 a.m. EDT. The March read on construction spending is expected to decline to 1.4% from 0.9% in February. Additionally, pending home sales data for March should come in unchanged after a 2.1% increase in February.
In terms of conferences and events,
Research in Motion
( RIMM) is set to hold its Capital Markets Day at 9 a.m. EDT, and both
Sears Holdings
(SHLD)
and
Motorola
( MOT) will be holding their annual shareholder meetings.
Of course, we'll have to monitor all of the other major news items on Monday and throughout the rest of the week:
Chrysler's
bankruptcy proceedings, the health of
General Motors
(GM) - Get Report
, whether banks have enough capital on hand to satisfy the government, and whether my hometown Red Sox can continue their early-season domination of the Yankees.
Well, maybe that last item isn't that important to the rest of you.
(At 9:01 a.m. EDT)
Stress Test Results Delayed: Report
Bloomberg
is reporting that the
Federal Reserve
will postpone the release of results of
stress tests on the biggest U.S. banks
while executives debate preliminary findings with examiners, citing government and industry officials. Originally, the plan was to release the results on Monday.
Should we be scared? Regulators and bank CEOs are reportedly concerned about how the disclosure of information is handled because weaker institutions could suffer a collapse in their stock prices, the news agency notes. The stress tests are being done to identify potential shortfalls in capital.
Bank stocks were trading uneven in the premarket session on the news.
Bank of America
(BAC) - Get Report
was losing 1.7%, while
Citigroup
(C) - Get Report
was adding 2.3% and both
Wells Fargo
(WFC) - Get Report
and
JPMorgan Chase
(JPM) - Get Report
shares were up 0.2%.
The stress test news wasn't the reason Citigroup shares were trading higher, though. The bank said Friday that it has reached a definitive agreement to sell its Japanese domestic securities business, conducted principally through
, to
Sumitomo Mitsui
for about 545 billion yen ($5.6 billion). Citigroup said the total cash value of the deal to the bank is $7.9 billion.
Auto Sales Data in Focus
Hot on the heels of the
Chrysler bankruptcy
protection announcement, automakers were again in the headlines as the monthly auto sales data for April will be released.
General Motors
(GM) - Get Report
, Chrysler,
Ford
(F) - Get Report
and
Toyota
(TM) - Get Report
will post monthly results throughout the day.
While all the doom and gloom surrounding the auto sector probably has everyone fearing how bad the auto sales for April will be,
Edmunds.com
said the data may show that the auto industry in the U.S. is "picking up much-needed momentum." April new-vehicle sales, including fleet sales, are expected to be 859,000 units, a 30.8% decrease from last April,
Edmunds.com
said, but a 0.5% increase sequentially.
Earnings Roundup
Among the quarterly earnings results released before Friday's opening bell,
Chevron
(CVX) - Get Report
reported a
64% decline in first-quarter earnings
that nonetheless bested Wall Street expectations. Earnings of 92 cents a share beat the Thomson Reuters average estimate of 81 cents a share. Shares were off 0.2% in premarket trading.
MasterCard
(MA) - Get Report
said
profit fell 18% in the first quarter
, but earnings of $2.80 a share beat the Thomson Reuters average estimate of $2.61 a share. Revenue slipped 2.2% to $1.2 billion in the quarter, though, and share of MasterCard were losing 3.8% in the premarket session.
